The invention relates to safety guards, and, more particularly, to safety guards for manual food slicers, and the like.
A primary object of the present invention is to afford a novel safety guard for manual food slicers.
Food slicers of the general type to which the present invention pertains have been heretofore known in the art. They commonly embody a base on which is mounted a cutter unit, which includes a plurality of stacked, parallel cutter blades, with a pusher unit having pusher blades that may be manually pushed into and out of intermeshed relation to the cutter blades for pressing food, such as tomatoes, or the like, which have been manually placed between the cutter unit and the pusher unit, through the stack of cutter blades, for thereby slicing the food. The cutter blades in such slicers commonly are so extremely sharp that if the operator accidentally bumps or brushes his hand thereagainst during operation of the slicer, severe lacerations may result. Safety guards have been heretofore known in the art, which were intended to protect against such accidental contact with the cutter blades of such slicers. However, such safety guards heretofore known in the art commonly have had several inherent disadvantages, such as, for example, not being reliable in operation; being complicated in construction or operation; causing problems in the operation of the machine; or being difficult and expensive to manufacture, or the like. It is an important object of the present invention to overcome such disadvantages.
Another object of the present invention is to afford a novel safety guard for such slicers, which affords effective protection against such accidential contact with the cutter blades of the slicer.
Another object of the present invention is to afford a novel safety guard of the aforementioned type which is readily operable.
A further object of the present invention is to afford a novel slicer of the aforementioned type wherein the parts thereof are so constituted and arranged that the guard does not interfere with the desired, normal operation of the slicer, but is effective to prevent damaging contact therewith by the cutter blades.
Another object of the present invention is to afford a novel guard of the aforementioned type which may be readily mounted on such a slicer.
Another object of the present invention is to afford a novel guard of the aforementioned type which is practical and efficient in operation and which may be readily and economically produced commercially.
Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings which, by way of illustration, show a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the principles thereof and what we new consider to be the best mode in which we have contemplated applying these principles. Other embodiments of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.